{"id":5045,"date":"2023-11-17T10:41:24","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T16:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/katerudolph.net\/?p=5045"},"modified":"2023-11-25T11:25:40","modified_gmt":"2023-11-25T17:25:40","slug":"free-first-chapter-knox-a-dragon-brides-sci-fi-romance-from-the-intergalactic-dating-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/katerudolph.net\/index.php\/free\/free-first-chapter-knox-a-dragon-brides-sci-fi-romance-from-the-intergalactic-dating-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"Free first chapter: Knox – A Dragon Brides Sci-fi Romance from the Intergalactic Dating Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,<\/span>\u00a0but the position has been filled,\u201d the diminutive, bright pink alien chirped at Aria when she showed up for her interview. She glanced at the blinking HELP WANTED sign and then back at the alien, but the alien just kept smiling.<\/p>\n

No luck.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know of anyone else that\u2019s hiring?\u201d Aria asked. They were on a space station, the kind of place that was always busy and always looking for people willing to stick around to work demanding jobs for little pay. Aria was willing. She had to be.<\/p>\n

She could still feel the phantom weight of the prison collar she\u2019d worn for the last year and a half. There was no lasting mark, but her skin felt permanently chafed with the imprint of it. She wasn\u2019t going back to a prison colony. Her old life was over, now she had to make something new.<\/p>\n

The pink alien made a face. \u201cNot with your\u2026 work\u2026 history. Now please leave, I have customers to see to.\u201d There were no customers waiting in the small makeup store, but Aria didn\u2019t argue.<\/p>\n

Damn it!<\/p>\n

Finding fake papers was hard when she didn\u2019t have the money to do it. What accounts hadn\u2019t been seized by the stinking authorities who\u2019d caught her had been looted by forces unknown. It turned out there wasn\u2019t any honor among thieves. And that meant that Aria was forced to live under her own name, the one she\u2019d been given by the heartless little orphanage on Hephastia Prime that was full of cast-off children with no past and no future.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d heard that some of the shops on this station wouldn\u2019t care that she had a criminal record and had done time for theft. She was beginning to suspect the places willing to hire her were the bars on brothels on the lower decks, provided that she let them amp up her less than ample bosom and agreed to the kind of work she\u2019d have to do on her back.<\/p>\n

Aria would avoid the mods for now. She still had a few credits to her name and she was more than a little cunning. Not every kid back at the orphanage could have made it more than a decade before getting locked up in a prison colony. And Aria had only been caught because some rat turned snitch.<\/p>\n

She found a seat at the edge of the food court and slumped down, allowing exactly three minutes for moping. She could afford another night in the dingy room she\u2019d rented, but after that she\u2019d need to vacate and find a free corner to sleep in until she had steady money coming in.<\/p>\n

How did people do it? She\u2019d been trying to make an honest living for two months and it felt like her skin was being stripped off of her in tiny strips. So far she\u2019d been eking by with small jobs fetching and carrying for the ships that were passing through, but the work was highly competitive and unsteady. Not to mention the captains were happy to stiff anyone not smart enough to get payment up front. And captains knew that paying up front ran the risk of getting scammed out of the work.<\/p>\n

No one could trust anyone in this damned place.<\/p>\n

An alien with strange antennae coming out of his green head stood up, a flashing device clutched in his pincers indicating that his food was ready at one of the vendors. He left a bulging black bag on the table and Aria sat up straighter.<\/p>\n

All she had to do was stand up, hook her arm through the strap, and keep walking like she hadn\u2019t done anything wrong. The alien wasn\u2019t paying attention, no one else was looking at her, and the lift would be so easy that a child could do it.<\/p>\n

Hell, if she were training a child, it would be the perfect test.<\/p>\n

But Aria forced herself to stay still. She wasn\u2019t doing that anymore. She didn\u2019t need to be a thief to survive. She could develop skills, earn an honest living. Everything in her rebelled at the idea of going back to prison, and she couldn\u2019t risk it for a mystery bag.<\/p>\n

She felt the barest brush of something at her own hip and her hand lashed out, latching onto a tiny wrist and the small person who yelped when she tightened her grip.<\/p>\n

Aria glared at the young human girl who couldn\u2019t have been older than thirteen. She had the desperate look of an urchin, but a cunning glint in her eyes. This wasn\u2019t her first attempted lift.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo hunt someone else, little one.\u201d Aria had enough compassion not to call for the guards, even if a small part of her wondered if that might end up better for the girl. Aria could remember what it was like to be fourteen years old and unceremoniously ejected from an overcrowded and underfunded orphanage.<\/p>\n

\u201cRagnar wants to see you,\u201d the girl said. \u201cFollow me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah. So the girl had already landed in a powerful orbit. And Aria could feel herself being pulled along.<\/p>\n

She forgot about the defenseless bag on the table beside her and followed the girl. Truthfully, Aria should have expected something like this to happen, for her old life to come calling. Forced as she was to live under her own name, it wasn\u2019t like she could hide.<\/p>\n

But she\u2019d thought Ragnar, at least, might let her go. All debts between them were long paid, and she hadn\u2019t said a word about his crew while she faced down the tribunal that decided her fate.<\/p>\n

The girl dropped her off at the door to a small booth hidden away along a hallway of the space station. They could be rented to make calls or do work, or just to snatch a bit of privacy in the busy place.<\/p>\n

The door slid open, and Aria took a seat while the girl ran off.<\/p>\n

Ragnar was a decade or so older than Aria. He had his finger on the pulse of the biggest scores in this quadrant of the galaxy and always got away clean. Prison was for other people.<\/p>\n

He smiled when he saw her, his bushy beard crinkling. His eyes were small and dark, unreadable, and his smile certainly didn\u2019t reach them. He kept his hands on the table, framing a folder.<\/p>\n

He was trying to appear nonthreatening. That couldn\u2019t be good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear you got out a few months ago,\u201d he said, voice low and raspy, as if something had damaged his throat. He\u2019d sounded like that for as long as she\u2019d known him.<\/p>\n

Aria shrugged. Ragnar wasn\u2019t the most violent man she knew, but she was locked in a tiny room with him without backup. The booths were soundproofed enough so that no one would hear her scream. Not that she expected it from Ragnar, but she\u2019d felt the sting of his palm a time or two, and she didn\u2019t want to chance it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThought you might have come looking for work,\u201d he said. He tapped a finger on the cover of the folder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m done with that now.\u201d She kept her gaze on him, refusing to glance at the folder. Whatever was in it was a gateway to her old life. Sure, the payout would be good, but at what price? It was never just one job with Ragnar.<\/p>\n

Once he got his hooks into a person, he didn\u2019t let go.<\/p>\n

And here she was, hooked again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAri, baby, you\u2019re one of the best I\u2019ve ever seen. You\u2019re in your prime, you can\u2019t quit.\u201d His smile turned beseeching, as if this was just a conversation between old friends.<\/p>\n

“I’m not going back to prison, and this is the way to stay out. I didn\u2019t say a word while I was inside. I didn\u2019t contact anyone. As far as I\u2019m concerned, it\u2019s all forgotten, okay? Whatever you\u2019re planning, you should find someone else.\u201d It would have been the perfect moment to slide out of the booth and leave, but there was no doubt in her mind that Ragnar was controlling the lock on the door. She was stuck in here until he let her go.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou worked for a long time. I\u2019m surprised you\u2019re in a place like this. Didn\u2019t you always say you\u2019d buy an estate on Sigma Epsilon?\u201d He wasn\u2019t smiling now. No, it had turned into a knowing grin.<\/p>\n

The bastard. Now Aria knew exactly what had happened to her money. \u201cYou raided my accounts? Really?\u201d<\/p>\n

He shrugged. \u201cNot like you were using it. And I was keeping it safe for you. I haven\u2019t touched a single credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

She clenched her jaw and had to take a deep breath before she started showing any more emotion. Any reaction she gave him would only work against her. \u201cThanks for looking out for my money, Ragnar, but I\u2019d like it back now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course.\u201d He slid the folder her way. \u201cBut I need you to do a job for me first. Then it\u2019s all yours and we\u2019re square.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aria didn\u2019t flip it open. \u201cI\u2019m out. I haven\u2019t lifted a single thing in nearly two years. My contact list has gone cold and I don\u2019t have any supplies. I\u2019m not the person you need for this job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally I\u2019d agree. But I\u2019ve been laying the groundwork on this one for a while and it\u2019s finally paying off. What do you know about the Intergalactic Dating Agency?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do mail order brides have to do with anything? I don\u2019t do sweetheart scams.\u201d She could run a grift as well as anyone, but love cons got dirty fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpen the folder, Aria. You\u2019re not saying no to this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

She laid her hand over the top of the folder, but didn\u2019t open it. \u201cWhat if I do?\u201d<\/p>\n

He splayed his hands wide and shrugged. \u201cThe Imperium is still looking for who pulled off the Nali heist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a hundred light years away from the Imperium when that happened. I don\u2019t touch those jobs.\u201d The Imperium didn\u2019t imprison low level thieves. They executed them. Slowly and painfully. The only hope of mercy came from offering information that an influential Imperium family could use against their enemies.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I have travel documents that show you were within a few hours of Imperium space both before and after the job, along with an account holding enough credits to suggest a Nali-sized payoff. Do you really think their bounty hunters will stop to ask questions?\u201d He nodded to the folder. \u201cBut there\u2019s no need for that. Just take a look. This job won\u2019t even take a week. And then you\u2019ll have your money back and we\u2019ll be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was no escaping Ragnar. Even if this job went well and he let her walk away, he\u2019d be back with a similar threat. If Aria was a little stronger she might have been able to say no and walk away. There had to be a hole somewhere deep enough to keep her hidden from the Imperium.<\/p>\n

But that life would be even drearier than the existence she was trying to eke out here.<\/p>\n

And if she had her credits back, she wouldn\u2019t need to prostrate herself by selling low quality makeup to commuters who didn\u2019t give a damn.<\/p>\n

She flipped open the folder and gave a low whistle when she read the stats on the diamond she was about to poach.<\/p>\n

Lord Knox of Vemion wouldn\u2019t know what hit him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Knox is a heartpounding sci fi romance that can be purchased in ebook and paperback at your favorite retailer and you can purchase the ebook directly through my website!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[wps_products_gallery title=”knox”]\n\n\n[wps_products_buy_button title=”Knox”]\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A wannabe reformed thief and a dragon lord looking for love\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After witnessing the skills of the Intergalactic Dating Agency at finding mates, Knox enlists their services to find a woman of his own. He\u2019s collected a hoard of precious stones from across the galaxy, a mate will be his crown jewel. But is he looking for love, or another treasure for his collection?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fresh off a prison colony, Aria wants to go straight. But when her past catches up to her, her only choice to escape a gnarly fate is to infiltrate Knox\u2019s home and steal a gigantic diamond right from under his nose. She\u2019s got the perfect cover: the Intergalactic Dating Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as she gets closer to the fiery dragon lord, the last thing she wants to do is betray him as he rouses feelings in her she never knew she could feel. When Knox finds out the truth, will he help her or will the betrayal be too much to overcome?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can she keep her dragon mate and escape her past?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Click on a link below to purchase this book at another store:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

eBook<\/strong>
Amazon<\/a> | Apple Books<\/a> | Barnes & Noble<\/a> | Google Play<\/a> | Kobo<\/a> | Smashwords<\/a> | Direct from Kate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Knox is a heartpounding sci fi romance that can be purchased in ebook and paperback at your favorite retailer and you can purchase the ebook directly through my website! A wannabe reformed thief and a dragon lord looking for love\u2026 After witnessing the skills of the Intergalactic Dating Agency at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{},"tcb2_ready":0,"tcb_editor_enabled":0,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"","_tve_footer":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[106,109,105,110,107],"class_list":["post-5045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-free","tag-alien-romance","tag-aliens","tag-dragon-brides","tag-science-fiction-romance","tag-scifi-romance","clearfix"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t